


Open Roads

by whizzerdbrown



Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn, The Book of Mormon - Parker/Stone/Lopez
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Modern AU, Probably some angst, Road Trips, heck, jason is marvin's younger brother, lots of fluff, marvin is a teleradiologist, price-brown au!, they live in an rv, they're 23-25ish in this, ummm idk more to come as i go, whizzer and marvin centric, whizzer is a photographer and runs a travel blog
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-13 15:56:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 12,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13573905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whizzerdbrown/pseuds/whizzerdbrown
Summary: { sequel to my last fic, True Colors. can probably be read alone? }After finishing college, Marvin and Whizzer start a new life together. Now it's just the two of them, and the open road. Oh, and, some friends they may or may not pick up along the way.





	1. prologue.

Marvin typed away at his laptop, busy at work. They were parked in an RV camping area for the night, and both of them were working on whatever last bit they needed to get completed before going to bed for the night. 

Well, _Marvin_ was working. Whizzer, however, was just fiddling with his camera and watching Marvin work. Marvin was sat at the table, completely focused on whatever task he was doing. Whizzer was on the couch on the opposite side of their vehicle. It was a pretty small living environment, sure, especially compared to the two story houses that both of them had previously lived in, but neither of them minded. There was just enough space for the two of them, and that was all they needed. 

Of course, it wasn’t fantastic when they got into arguments. There wasn’t enough room for them to avoid each other. But, thankfully enough, they didn’t really get into many arguments. And when they did, it was usually over something small and stupid, and they’d get over it fairly quickly. 

Whizzer slid down on the couch, and stuck his leg out in the small floor space between them, stretching it out until he managed to tap Marvin’s leg with his foot. Marvin glanced up from the laptop and over at Whizzer, groaning and covering his face when he realized that the camera was pointed at him. 

But he was too late. Whizzer had already snapped the picture, and was snickering. 

“Whizzer,” Marvin huffed. “We’ve talked about this.”

“About what? About how cute you are when I catch you off guard in photographs?” Whizzer asked, sitting up and turning the camera to Marvin. “Look!”

“Gross,” Marvin shook his head, turning his attention back to the laptop. “I’d say that I’ll get you back, but you’re so photogenic that it wouldn’t work.”

Whizzer laughed. “That is a _lie!_ You have plenty of bad pictures of me.”

“If by plenty, you mean two, then sure. Two out of at least two thousand.”

“Is your entire camera roll just me?”

“For the most part, yes.” 

Whizzer left his camera on the couch and sat at the table, across from Marvin. Marvin reached across the table for Whizzer’s hand, lowering the lid of the laptop. He smiled, placing his hand in Marvin’s. “Are you done with your telly-radio-whatever?”

“Teleradiology,” Marvin corrected him, even though he knew Whizzer was just pretending to not know what it was called. “And yes, I am. Have you posted on your blog yet?”

“No,” Whizzer sighed. “I’ll just post an extra long one tomorrow.”

Marvin chuckled, rolling his eyes, as he stood up. He pulled Whizzer up with him. “C’mon, then.” He pulled Whizzer down by the collar of his shirt, pressing a kiss to his boyfriend’s lips. “Lets go to bed. It’s late.”

“It’s ten thirty,” Whizzer grumbled, playfully, but he followed Marvin to bed anyway. Both of them knew that it wasn’t actually _sleep_ that they’d be doing for the next hour or two. Or three. 

\- - -

Marvin awoke first the next morning. He generally was the one to wake up first. He just laid there for a moment, letting Whizzer’s warmth radiate off of his back. They had originally been cuddling facing each other, but throughout all of their rolling around and shifting throughout the night, Marvin ended up on his side with Whizzer hanging off his back. Almost like spooning, but not quite. 

He yawned, carefully untangling himself from Whizzer’s long limbs without waking him, then made his way to the small kitchen area to start brewing coffee and to attempt to make breakfast. 

Neither one of them was that great of a cook. Whizzer was slightly better at it than Marvin was, but he still wasn’t great. They’d probably just end up going to a diner or something, like most mornings, but sometimes they like to _try_ to home cook something. 

Whizzer woke up shortly after Marvin managed to burn the eggs. 

“Don’t set off the smoke alarm,” Whizzer teased, as he entered the room. 

“No promises.” Marvin grinned. 

That had happened a multitude of times, to both of them. It always seemed to happen to Whizzer when he was making something with eggs. 

Whizzer came up from behind Marvin, wrapping his arms around him and kissing the back of his head. Marvin could tell that Whizzer was still tired. Whizzer was always cuddly, but he was extra cuddly when tired. Or drunk. Marvin hummed, turning around to face him. 

“How’d you sleep?”

“Fine,” Whizzer answered, with a yawn. “Until you left me.”

Marvin rolled his eyes, leaning up on his toes to place a few quick kisses on Whizzer’s cheek. “Maybe if you didn’t sleep until noon…”

“Maybe if you didn’t wake up at five in the morn- It’s already noon?”

That made Marvin laugh. “No. It’s only nine. I was exaggerating.”

Whizzer pouted at him. “Don’t exaggerate with me when I’m half asleep.” 

“Then wake up.” He ran a hand through Whizzer’s hair, knowing that really only made him more tired when he was half asleep like that. 

But it was so cute, the way Whizzer would lean into his touch when Marvin played with his hair. He was like a cat. And other times, he was like a dog - happy, excited, energetic, friendly. Whizzer was wonderful. 

“Can we go to IHOP?” Whizzer questioned, eyeing the burnt eggs. 

Marvin shrugged. “Sure. I don’t see why not.”

Whizzer went to take a shower while Marvin cleaned up the small mess from his attempts at breakfast. Then, Marvin took a shower while Whizzer got dressed. Whizzer playfully sat and watched Marvin get dressed, despite Marvin telling him to go start on his blog or something. 

They picked up the areas and secured everything down, and then they were on the road once again. Just like in high school, but better.


	2. arizona.

“We should go to Arizona,” Whizzer suddenly said one day, while typing on his laptop. 

Marvin raised his eyebrows, glancing over at Whizzer. “What’s in Arizona?”

“Uh, the Grand Canyon. Plus, it’ll be sunny and warm. It’s cold here,” he answered. “I’ve always wanted to see the Grand Canyon. When I was a lot younger, my dad told me he’d take me to see it, but, you know.”

It still surprised Marvin how easily Whizzer could joke about his childhood now that it was all dealt with. “I mean… Yeah, okay. We can go to Arizona. It’s going to be miserably hot, though. I’m not looking forward to that.”

Whizzer shrugged. “I hear you complain about at least one thing everyday. If it’s going to be the heat, that’s okay.”

Marvin rolled his eyes. 

They sat in comfortable quiet for a moment, the only real noise being the music playing from the radio and the sound of Whizzer typing away, working on his travel blog. 

“What made you decide to suddenly pick an actual location to go to?” Marvin asked, curiously. “What happened to just driving to wherever the road and chance takes us?”

Whizzer offered a small shrug. “It’s nice to have a specific goal in mind sometimes. Also it’s cold.”

“It’s not _cold.”_

It really wasn’t. It wasn’t summer, of course, but it wasn’t all that cold. To Marvin, at least. Whizzer was just always cold. It was springtime. Marvin liked this kind of weather. 

Whizzer stared at him. He was currently in one of Marvin’s sweaters, one of the ones he would have put back right after winter weather was over. “It’s cold.”

“Okay,” Marvin said, adding on teasingly, “You’re wrong, but okay.”

Whizzer just laughed. 

\- - -

According to what Whizzer had found online, it should take them about a day and a half to get to Arizona from where they were. But, knowing them, mit would probably be more like a week. Because, even though they drove nearly all day, everyday, without stops, they easily got distracted by things they saw on the side of the roads. Signs, stores, parks, so on. One time, they accidentally spent a little over three hours just from people watching in a park. 

People watching was one of their favorite things to do together. They liked to make up stupid stories about the people they saw. Whizzer’s stories were the best, and almost always had Marvin cracking up. He was always so in depth about their stories, like he was writing a biography rather than just making something up on the fly about a girl they saw running through the park in high heels. 

They got started on their actual route to Arizona the morning after they decided that the Grand Canyon was their next official stop, even though both of them knew that they would end up making multiple different stops along the way. 

Like, for example, after only a half hour on the road, Whizzer insisted on going to a national park that was just a mile or two up ahead. He kept talking about all of the good shots that he would get, and how he _needed_ to get them. Plus, Marvin didn’t mind the opportunity to watch Whizzer take pictures. He always would get this focused look on his face, and it was one of the cutest things. Whizzer was always cute, though. 

Marvin was following alongside Whizzer, watching as he would pause randomly to take a few pictures. It was the simple things like this that often made Marvin think about just how in love he was. It was cheesy, sappy, he knew, but he didn’t care. If you told him back in the beginning of high school that he would be _this_ in love, and especially with a _man,_ he would have laughed in your face. 

But now… Marvin was so helplessly in love. They’ve been together for about five years now, and Marvin swore that he was just falling even more in love each day. 

He wanted to propose to Whizzer. Maybe not anytime soon - they two of them hadn’t ever discussed anything like that. Marvin didn’t even know if Whizzer ever wanted to get married. He didn’t know what Whizzer wanted for that part of their future at all. 

“Hello? Marvin?”

Marvin blinked. How long had he been spaced out? “Yes?”

Whizzer broke into a smile. “I could have taken so many pictures of you just now. But I didn’t, because I love you.”

Marvin pulled Whizzer down for a kiss. They held it for awhile, both of them feeling eyes on them as other people walked by. Neither of them cared a single bit. 

_Straight people._ That’s what they would always say to each other. Whenever someone gave them a dirty look, or made a comment, or pointed them out. _Stupid, ignorant straight people._ And of course they knew it wasn’t _all_ straight people that acted like that, they just loved to use that phrase because it would always shut people up. 

They only pulled away after they heard a comment. An older man, who had probably been glaring at them for quite awhile, cleared his throat and said, “Do you _mind?”_

“No,” Whizzer answered unabashedly, as he casually took Marvin’s hand in his own. “We don’t mind at all. Thanks for asking, sir!” 

The guy stared, obviously shocked, before turning around, shaking his head, and mumbling to himself. 

Whizzer and Marvin shared a glance, grinning at each other. Just to spite the guy, even though both of them knew he wasn’t looking anymore, they shared another quick kiss before continuing on their way. 

Yeah, they said that they were only going to be there for Whizzer’s photography, but they ended up staying for another few hours. They just walked around and talked for awhile, purposefully weirded out any homophobes by kissing often and holding hands the whole time. It was easy for the two of them to lose track of time like that, especially in such a pretty area. 

Even though a lot of their time there was spent goofing around and laughing and making people angry by being themselves, Whizzer did end up with a lot of pretty shots. Marvin did too, from his phone - although all of them were just of Whizzer, with the nature aspect in the background of the photo. 

The rest of their evening was spent sitting next to each other, in comfortable silence, working on separate things. Whizzer was editing his photos to post on his website, and Marvin was communicating with other radiologists through email. And then after that, they managed to successfully make a small, not hard to cook dinner together, and then they went to bed. 

“So much for Arizona being our next stop,” Marvin said to Whizzer, as they snuggled together in the bed in the back of the RV. 

Whizzer hummed. He was already half asleep, thanks to the warmth between the two of them. Oh, and Marvin was playing with his hair. That always made him tired. 

Marvin chuckled, kissing the top of Whizzer’s head. Whizzer had his face buried into the crook of Marvin’s neck. It was warm there, he’d claimed. “Maybe we’ll have more luck tomorrow. Good night, love.”

Whizzer hummed out another half-awake reply, that sounded a lot like an “I love you.”


	3. storm.

It was storming on their second day of trying to get to Arizona. Storms didn’t bother Marvin at all, but they usually freaked Whizzer out. Not only because he just got anxious driving in hard rain only, but also because the thunder was so loud and sudden, it always startled him. Marvin thought it probably reminded him of his childhood, but he would never say anything about that because he didn’t want to bring back anything. 

Whizzer was trying to pay attention to something on his phone, but Marvin knew that he was worrying about the rain. 

“It’s not even raining that hard, Whiz,” Marvin mumbled, trying to reassure him. 

“Yeah, okay,” Whizzer sighed, immediately putting his phone aside. “Slow down, Marvin, we’re going to crash.”

“We won’t crash.”

“Marv, it will hydroplane-“

“No it won’t.”

“- and you’ll lose control of it-“

“I won’t.”

“- and we’ll _die.”_

Marvin had to hold back a laugh. “Whiz, darling, don’t you think that’s a little extreme?”

“I hope you want that written on your tombstone.” Whizzer was pouring and had his arms crossed. 

He honestly couldn’t tell if Whizzer was joking or not. What he said was very extreme - they were completely fine, they weren’t going to _die_ \- but Whizzer was sometimes extreme, when he wasn’t trying to be funny. 

It was quiet for a moment, before Whizzer farted talking again. “Okay, maybe death was a little extreme, but- I’m scared, alright? What if we really _do_ hydroplane? This is such a big vehicle - have you driven an RV in rain before?”

“We’ve taken this thing in rain multiple times. It’s always been just fine.” Marvin answered truthfully. 

Whizzer sighed. “I meant _before-“_

Thunder loudly rumbled, nearly enough to rumble the RV, too. It was _awesome._ Marvin loved this kind of weather. 

Whizzer, on the other hand, looked horrified. “Marvin, please, slow down.”

Marvin held one of his hands out for Whizzer, keeping the other one on the steering wheel. “We’re on the highway. I can’t really slow down; I’m going the same speed as everyone else.”

Whizzer took Marvin’s hand without a second thought, squeezing it tighter than usual as he stared out the window. Whenever Marvin glanced over at him, he could practically see all of the fears turning in Whizzer’s head, all of the thoughts working together to come up with a reason that something might go wrong. 

“Whizzer, love, please calm down. Relax. We’ve done this before,” Marvin said, his voice gentle. 

Whizzer just didn’t reply. 

At this point, the only thing left to do was to wait until Whizzer started spouting more ‘what-if’ questions, and then to just come up with reasons why those situations wouldn’t happen. This happened every single time. 

Marvin felt bad for Whizzer, he really did. Poor guy just couldn’t catch a break. 

“Okay, but,” Whizzer started suddenly. Here they go. “What if we _do_ hydroplane?”

“We won’t. We never have.”

“What if it happens this time?”

“I promise you, it won’t. But, if it does, we’ll just stay calm and figure it out. My car has hydroplaned before, and I was just fine. It’ll probably be the same now.”

“Your _car_ has _hydroplaned?”_

Oh. Maybe he shouldn’t have said that?

Marvin shrugged. “Yeah. Early junior year of high school. It was a little nerve wracking in the moment, but once I gained control of the wheel again - it only happened for, like, ten seconds tops - it was kind of fun.” 

Whizzer ran his hands over his face. “Oh my _god.”_

It really had been kind of fun, once he realized that he really wasn’t going to crash. The adrenaline was awesome. Marvin also may or may not be a daredevil. 

“It was like… Being on a roller coaster. Like, you know, the moment right before the big drop, and you feel super scared that something might go wrong? And then it goes on and it’s actually a lot of fun? It was like that.”

Whizzer shook his head. “I only feel the intense fear.”

“You don’t like roller coasters?”

“Only the smaller ones.” 

“Have you _been_ on the big ones?”

Whizzer was quiet for a moment. “Okay, no, but one time Cordelia and I were in line for a big roller coaster and someone lost their phone and I am not ready for that sacrifice.” 

That made Marvin laugh. Of _course._ Whizzer and his social media. “I love you.”

Whizzer rolled his eyes, but he was smiling now, too. “Love you too, asshole. Now please slow down before we die.”

Marvin huffed. “Alright, okay, how about this compromise: I don’t slow down right now, because we’re on a highway and we’ll get honked at or rear ended or something if I slow down, but I’ll pull over at the next parking lot and we’ll wait there until the storm is over.”

Whizzer seemed to consider this idea for a moment, before nodding. “Okay. Oh- but park in a Starbucks parking lot or something. I want tea, or coffee, or something.”

Marvin snickered. “Okay.” 

Within an hour, they’d managed to successfully get off the highway and into a Starbucks parking lot. The two of them were cuddled up on the couch with their warm drinks, watching some dumb cooking show on Netflix on one of their laptops. 

Either they didn’t realize that the storm had stopped after five o’clock in the evening, or they just decided to put off getting to Arizona for another day. Whizzer was truly invested in this show either way, and Marvin loved watching him marvel over the good dishes and pull a Gordon Ramsay at the bad dishes.


	4. lazy day / late night.

They had accidentally fallen asleep cuddled together on the couch that night. Marvin slowly woke up first, but didn’t even consider getting up. Besides, even if he had actually _wanted_ to get up, Whizzer was on top of him. And Whizzer was still fast asleep, and Marvin wouldn’t sacrifice that just to get up off the couch. 

Marvin ran his hand up and down Whizzer’s back, gently, watching his lover sleep. That was one of the best things about being a morning person. Whizzer absolutely was not a morning person. He could probably sleep all day, if Marvin let him. 

Slowly, though, Whizzer started to stir awake. A yawn, and then he rubbed his eyes. 

“Morning, donut.”

He’d started calling Whizzer that jokingly, but Whizzer seemed to actually really like it, so he kept it. 

Whizzer pressed a sleepy kiss to Marvin’s jaw in response. He clearly wasn’t about to wake up all the way anytime soon. 

And Marvin didn’t mind. He’d stay here all day with him, if Whizzer wanted to. It meant that they probably wouldn’t get any closer to Arizona, but that was fine. Over time, they would end up there. Even if it took them five times as long as it should have. 

He continued to rub Whizzer’s back, just enjoying the warmth between the two of them. 

As Whizzer dozed in and out of sleep, Marvin got to thinking about their future again. The Grand Canyon would be an amazing place to propose. How cool would that be? He could just imagine it - Whizzer taking pictures, and then turning to show Marvin a shot he got, and then Marvin would be there on his knee with a ring. It was just that… Marvin couldn’t figure out how he would even _get_ the ring. 

He and Whizzer were literally inseparable. With living in the RV and constantly traveling, they never even left to go to work. Work was right here, in the RV. On their laptops. The only thing Marvin could think of would be to, like, pay someone else to get the ring for him and get it to him inconspicuously. 

Or maybe the next time they ended up at a mall, he could leave Whizzer in whatever clothes shop he was in to go to the jewelry shop. There was always one of those in a mall, right? He would have to be fast, before Whizzer realized that he had left and went to go find him. How awkward would it be for Whizzer to come in while Marvin was buying an engagement ring? He would practically have to propose right there, in the jewelry store. Although, if he tried hard enough, he might be able to pull it off. 

And what if Whizzer didn’t even want to get married? What if he would tie him down into something he didn’t want? What if that would break them apart? What if-

“Marv? Are you okay?”

Whizzer was looking at him, concerned. 

“Yeah.” Marvin kissed Whizzer’s forehead. “I’m fine.”

“You looked worried.” 

“Just thinking.”

“About?”

Marvin shrugged. He couldn’t just come right out and ask Whizzer if he wanted to get married. Not now, at least. 

But Whizzer was staring at him, expectantly. He wanted an answer better than just a shrug. 

Not prepared at all, Marvin awkwardly shrugged a second time. “Things.”

Whizzer groaned, burying his face into Marvin’s shoulder. Marvin chuckled, trailing his hands through Whizzer’s hair. 

“It’s nothing bad, Whizzer, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Marvin stated. 

“If I guess it, will you tell me?”

“Sure.”

Because Marvin doubted that he would actually guess it. 

They played the guessing game for almost two hours, Whizzer never really coming close. Well, once he asked if Marvin was thinking about having kids. But then he changed the topic completely and asked if it was clothes. 

Whizzer finally gave up after that, though. They ended up going back into Starbucks, since they were already parked there, and got drinks and something to eat before getting back on the road. (Whizzer kept jokingly calling both of their drinks a ‘pinkity drinkity,’ even though they were not pink, until Marvin threatened to throw them out the window.) 

It was already five thirty - they’d spent the majority of the day just cuddled together on the couch. But that just meant that they’d be staying up later that night, because neither of them were tired. And both of them a gotten coffee. Probably not their best plan, it would mess up their sleeping schedules for awhile, but it was fine. There was once a week where they accidentally became nocturnal, and they managed to get through that.

They stopped driving around midnight, to sit and took at the stars for awhile. Stargazing was another one of their favorite things to do. They’d lay a blanket out in the grass and just lay there together. Sometimes in comfortable silence, and sometimes they’d have conversations. 

“What do you think about marriage?” Marvin asked him, trying to keep it casual. 

Whizzer gave him a look. “What do you mean?”

Shit. Whizzer was onto him, wasn’t he? Marvin gave a shrug and repeated his question. 

Whizzer stared, then seemed to actually consider the question. “It’s sweet, I guess. Proposals are cute, if done right. The ones on YouTube where they get rejected are sad.”

Okay, so maybe Whizzer _wasn’t_ onto him? Or was he just pretending not to be? God, the was stressful. 

Instead, Marvin just nodded. 

“They just have to make sure it’s the right person, before even thinking about proposing.” Whizzer said, while staring straight up at the stars. “If it’s not the right person, they’ll end up like my parents.”

“And if it _is_ the right person?” Marvin tried. 

Whizzer smiled. “Then they’ll end up like _your_ parents.”

That made Marvin smile, too. Whizzer had this odd infatuation with Marvin’s parents, and their relationship. His dad had said that it was probably because he wasn’t used to seeing parents, married couples, get along as well as they did. Marvin didn’t know. But what Marvin _did_ know was that Whizzer was definitely the right person, and that they would never, _ever_ end up like Whizzer’s parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wanted to call this chapter “pinkity drinkity” but i didn’t


	5. mysterious.

When Whizzer got tired, it was hilarious. Especially at times when Marvin was still wide awake. It was currently five in the morning, and neither of them had slept since the afternoon before. With the coffee in him, Marvin wasn’t tired at all. Whizzer had coffee, too, but it didn’t have the same effect on him. 

Marvin has tried for the past hour and a half to tell Whizzer to just go to sleep. Whizzer was having none of that. Whizzer’s tiredness came in stages. First, he’d actually admit that he was tired, but he would refuse to actually go to sleep until Marvin did, too. (And there was no way Marvin could get to sleep, now.) Then, he’d refuse to even acknowledge that he was tired. That’s where he was now. 

“Whizzer, please,” Marvin tried again. “Go to bed. I’ll go to bed soon, too.”

“No you won’t,” Whizzer huffed, followed by a yawn. “And I’m not tired, so I don’t need to sleep anyway.”

Marvin rolled his eyes. He just didn’t respond, this time. Maybe the quiet would make Whizzer go to sleep. 

He was wrong. It just made Whizzer start talking even _more._ He just rambled on about things, and it was pretty obvious that Whizzer had no idea what he was talking about, but he just kept going. It reminded Marvin of Jason, when Jason was trying not to fall asleep. Whizzer was so much like Jason, in so many different ways. 

_“Maaaaaarviiiiiiiin,”_ Whizzer whined, after awhile of just talking. “Are you even listening?”

“Mhm.” Marvin hummed. 

Whizzer groaned, then crossed his arms, and stared out the window with a pout. He was silent again. Marvin knew it wouldn’t take long before he was asleep, now. 

And he was right. Marvin glanced back over at Whizzer a half hour or so later, and Whizzer was fast asleep. Oh, this was a perfect chance. If Marvin could find a jewelry store somewhere around here, he could just go in and get a ring while Whizzer was asleep. As long as Whizzer wouldn’t wake up while Marvin was in the store… 

He was going to take the risk. 

It took him a little while, but he eventually came across a small, nice looking jewelers. And it was open, despite the fact that it was only seven in the morning. He sent a quick glance at Whizzer, making sure that he was still sleeping pretty well, before slowly getting out of the RV and going inside. 

 

***

 

Whizzer didn’t even remember falling asleep. How long had he been out? Had he really been that tired? He yawned, slowly sitting up in his seat. They were stopped, for some reason. And Marvin was –

Just now getting back into the RV. Wait, what? Where had he gone?

“Marv…?” Whizzer questioned him, glancing to the building that they were parked in front of. 

But he didn’t get the chance to read the sign, because Marvin was suddenly kissing him. Whizzer let his eyes flutter shut, leaning into the kiss, his confusion and curiosity lost for the moment. 

And then Marvin pulled away from the kiss. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, glancing over to the building again. “Where are-“

“Whiz, babe, look.” Marvin thrust a colorful piece of paper into Whizzer’s view. “It’s about Arizona. Fun stuff we can do there.”

Once Whizzer took the paper, quickly looking over it, Marvin quickly pulled out of the parking lot and drove down the road. 

“Slow down, jesus- You’re _speeding.”_

“I am not.” 

But he was. And he did slow down. 

“Anyway,” Marvin said, hurriedly. “Look at the thing. Isn’t it cool?”

“It’s… just a flyer for the Grand Canyon.” Whizzer mumbled, turning the paper over in his hand. “Are you okay? You’re acting weird-“

“I’m fine! Why wouldn’t I be?”

He was… not fine. Something was up. 

“Alright,” Whizzer said, pretending to believe him, while pulling out his phone and texting Cordelia. 

**to: deli(a) counter**   
_what do u do when ur bf is acting weird_

She came through with a response almost immediately. 

**from: deli(a) counter**   
_depends! what kind of weird?_

Marvin looked distracted by his thoughts, Whizzer noted. He didn’t say anything, though, and turned back to his phone. He typed out the previous events to Cordelia, and awaited her response. 

**from: deli(a) counter**   
_you have no idea where he stopped at?_   
_like,,, not even a slight idea?_

**to: deli(a) counter**   
_not a clue_   
_ & this grand canyon thing is lame af _

He sent her a picture of it. 

**from: deli(a) counter**   
_yeah, that is lame. did you ask him?_

Whizzer thought for a moment, before deciding to do just that. “Where did you go, anyway?”

“What?” Marvin asked, glancing at Whizzer briefly before looking back at the road. 

“That building that you were coming back from. What was it?”

“Uh- A bathroom.”

Whizzer stared. “Yeah… Okay.”

 **to: deli(a) counter**  
 _just asked, 90% sure he’s not tellin the truth_  
 _he said it was a bathroom. who acts sheepish after pissing?_

**from: deli(a) counter**   
_maybe he pooped._

**to: deli(a) counter**   
_who acts sheepish after shitting?_

But he was grinning, now. Even if Cordelia’s answers weren’t leading in the right way at all, at least they were entertaining. 

She was always fun to text, though. Whizzer missed seeing her in person. Maybe he should invite her and Charlotte to meet them at the Grand Canyon. 

**from: deli(a) counter**   
_your boyfriend does, i guess!_

**to: deli(a) counter**   
_hey, u should come meet my sheepish shitter bf and i @ the grand canyon_   
_u can bring ur gf too, whether she shits sheepishly or not_

**from: deli(a) counter**   
_srs????? okay!!!! we’ll be there!!_   
_wait! where are you rn?_

**to: deli(a) counter**   
_uhhhh kansas somewhere_   
_i’d ask marv, he’d know, but he’s weird_

**from: deli(a) counter**   
_!!!!!!!!_   
_char & i are in oklahoma rn for a dr.s conference thing she needed to be in, we’re supposed to head home tmrw _   
_wanna just come pick us up here??? :)_

Whizzer grinned. “Hey, Marv?”

“Yes, darling?”

“Let's go to Oklahoma first.”

Marvin almost looked worried. “What? What’s in Oklahoma?”

“Our favorite lesbians!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yaaaaaaaaaa here come the lesbians


	6. didney chanel.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the kids are memes.

They’d decided to meet Cordelia and Charlotte at IHOP the next day. Over the course of the day, Marvin started acting normal again. Whizzer was still bewildered by the whole thing, but he gave up on questioning him because he wasn’t getting anywhere. He and Cordelia would just have to figure it out once they met up. 

Everyone in the IHOP thought that they were couples, but incorrectly. The waitress asked Whizzer he long he and Cordelia had been together, and both of them laughed for a solid five minutes. Marvin and Charlotte were left to explain the situation. 

“Why is it so funny?” Charlotte had asked them, after they finally managed to contain themselves.

“I could _never_ date him,” Cordelia answered immediately, still giggling a little. “Even if he was a girl, and even if I was single. Never, ever.”

Whizzer snickered. 

In truth, they really had dated before. It hadn’t worked out at all. It lasted for about a week, back in middle school. Both of them came out as gay to each other, and settled to being best friends - but everyone still thought they were a couple. Even after both of them came out to the whole school, there were still people that swore they were a couple. 

To everyone’s surprise, they managed to get through the rest of breakfast without any more comments on being couples, and then they were in the RV. 

 

***

 

Charlotte ended up in the passenger seat next to Marvin, while Cordelia and Whizzer sat in the back. Even though they were all the way back there, they still had control of the music, and were currently blasting some old Jonas Brothers stuff. 

“Does Whizzer listen to this regularly?” Charlotte questioned Marvin, jokingly. 

Marvin laughed. “Believe it or not, he doesn’t. His music is okay. Never pegged Cordelia as the Jonas Brothers type.”

Charlotte shook her head. “Honestly? Me neither.” 

The drive was filled with kind of cringey old Disney channel hits - more Jonas Brothers, old Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez, you get it - and Whizzer and Cordelia loudly singing along and laughing. Both Marvin and Charlotte were kind of amazed that they still knew all of the words. 

Charlotte wouldn’t lie, she knew some of them. The songs from Camp Rock? Hell yeah, that was her shit. She remembered making Marvin watch those movies with her, when they first came out. He pretended to hate every minute of it, but they both knew he didn’t. 

“Hey, Char,” Marvin had said at one point, while Whizzer and Cordelia were belting the Wizards of Waverly Place theme song. “I need your help with something.”

Charlotte raised her eyebrow at him, trying to hear him over the surprisingly in-tune scream singing from the back. “Marvin Blumenfeld actually asking for help? This is serious.”

He playfully rolled his eyes at her. “Yeah, yeah. Listen - I managed to get a ring without Whizzer finding out-“

 _“What?_ No way! Marvin-“

Marvin quickly shushed her. There was no way Cordelia and Whizzer would hear them, but he was paranoid. “Yes way, I’ve kept it in my pocket for a day and a half now and I know how I want to propose to him, but, like, what if he says no? What if he’s not ready for marriage? What if he doesn’t even want to get married?”

Charlotte patted Marvin’s shoulder. “Marv. It’s going to be _fine._ He’ll be so happy. And he’s totally into the idea of getting married - Cordelia showed me their old pinterest accounts the other day, and Whizzer’s was _filled_ with wedding stuff.”

Marvin took in a deep breath and nodded his head. 

Charlotte leaned in closer to him, grinning. She was excited now. “What’s your plan? How’re you going to do it?”

“Don’t laugh,” Marvin mumbled, “but I was going to propose at the Grand Canyon.”

She cheered quietly, clapping her hands together once. “Marvin! That’ll be great! He’ll love it, I promise. You just need to work on being more confident, less nervous, or else you’ll accidentally drop the ring into the canyon.” 

Marvin looked horrified at that thought. 

 

***

 

Whizzer could not believe that they had managed to find their playlists from middle school. It was on Cordelia’s old YouTube account - which they had posted three entire videos on. All three of which had two views - one from each of Cordelia’s moms. They were so famous. 

Good times. Whizzer missed Cordelia’s parents - they had _loved_ him. He wondered if Cordelia has told them about the whole thing with his parents or not. They might have just heard it through news or something. 

Anyway. 

Both of them still knew every single word to every single song in this playlist. They were also kind of surprised that Marvin and Charlotte weren’t complaining - but they seemed more focused on their own conversation than the actual music. 

He and Cordelia burst out laughing when “E.V.I.L. B.O.Y.S.” from Phineas and Ferb came on. 

“I forgot we put this in here,” Whizzer managed to say, in between laughter and trying to catch his breath. 

Cordelia was laughing so hard that she couldn’t even make out a response. 

Middle school had been a great time. Whizzer spent 90% of his time at Cordelia’s house, jamming out to the same music that was playing now - except there was less laughing because of how bad the music was. The laughter back then was just because they were both bad dancers, and they always seemed to instantly get ten times more giggly when they were with each other. 

By the time they managed to calm their laughter down again, they heard Charlotte and Marvin doing an accurate, but quieter than Whizzer and Cordelia, duet of “One and The Same” from Princess Protection Program. That just set them off again. 

 

***

 

Yeah, Charlotte had also made Marvin watch Princess Protection Program with her. Back then, he wouldn’t even admit to slightly liking the movie, but now, here he was, actually singing along to it. Neither one of them thought that _this_ would become their future. 

Yet, somehow, they weren’t bothered by that fact that this really _was_ their future.


	7. say yes to the dress.

Somehow, it ended up with Charlotte and Cordelia up in front - Charlotte driving - and Whizzer and Marvin in the back. Whizzer assumed that it was because Charlotte and Marvin were tired of listening to the entire Phineas and Ferb soundtrack, but he wasn’t completely sure. Either way, Charlotte was in control of the music now, and she was playing a bunch of things that Whizzer thought were boring. (Both her and Cordelia would disagree, seeing as they knew every word.)

So, Whizzer was making Marvin marathon _Say Yes to the Dress_ with him, start to finish. Or, at least, until one of them (or both) got sent back up front. At first, Marvin had said that it was stupid, and he only agreed to watch it with Whizzer because they were cuddling on the couch, and there was no way for Whizzer to watch it alone without him leaving, and neither of them were willing to sacrifice that over a show. Eventually, though, Marvin came around and said that it wasn’t bad. 

“I just like seeing the happy couples.” Marvin said.

Whizzer shrugged. “I bet a lot of it is fake. I’m just waiting to see a full blown argument leading to divorce over a dress.”

“I doubt that would happen, Whizzer. Over a dress?”

“You’d be surprised. My parents argued over the stupidest things- I mean, I guess that’s different, but still.”

Whizzer wouldn’t have been surprised if his parents had fought over the wedding dress. He wouldn’t be surprised if they’d fought over the wedding theme, or the location, or who would be invited. You could tell Whizzer that his parents once fought over a piece of paper and he wouldn’t be surprised.

Marvin pressed a kiss to Whizzer’s temple. “Most couples wouldn’t fight over a dress.”

Whizzer hummed. “We would.”

“Why would we?”

“Because neither one of us would want to wear it.”

That made Marvin laugh.

Then, Whizzer added on, “Though, both of us would look killer in wedding dresses. If we ever get married, we should do that. Both of us will wear dresses, and Cordelia and Charlotte can be our best women and they can wear suits.”

Marvin stared. “I hope you’re joking.”

“Not about the Cordelia and Charlotte being the best women part. But the dresses and suits part, yes. I would not be willing to wear a dress, even though they’re very pretty.”

Marvin trailed a hand through Whizzer’s hair. “What theme would you want for the wedding?”

“If we had one,” Whizzer said, “it couldn’t be a holiday one. Halloween weddings are cool in theory, but nobody would go - they’re too busy stuffing themselves with candy and watching horror movies. _I_ wouldn’t even go, and it would be me who was getting married. Oh, and, no winter weddings. Too cold, plus there’s Hanukkah. Having an anniversary on one of the days of Hanukkah would be so weird. Or, Christmas. That would be even weirder, since Christmas actually has a set date - like we specifically planned for it to be on Christmas. Gross. I want, like, a summer or a fall wedding. And it could be held outside.”

Marvin chuckled, nodding his head. 

“What kind of wedding would you want?” Whizzer questioned, shifting himself to face away from the laptop screen, to look at Marvin. 

Marvin seemed to think for a moment, before shrugging. “I don’t know. Honestly, we could get married in the middle of the living room in our pajamas and I’d be happy.”

Whizzer laughed at him. That was such a Marvin answer. Most of the time, Marvin just went along with whatever Whizzer thought. He placed a few kisses on Marvin’s cheek. “That’s sweet, Marv, but seriously. If you were left completely in charge of planning the perfect wedding, in your eyes, how would it look?” 

Marvin had clearly never thought about this before. Whizzer could see the gears turning in his head. Whizzer wanted patiently though - he was really curious. How different were their ideas for weddings?

“I guess I agree with the not on a holiday thing,” Marvin agreed, with a nod. “Not in December at all. Or January or February - or even November. I mean, those months are fine, but too cold for weddings. I’d feel bad for people who decided to wear dresses.”

Whizzer nodded. _“Way_ too cold.”

Marvin thought some more, before adding on. “May to September, somewhere in there. That would be perfect wedding weather - as long as the sun wasn’t too hot in the summer. Then the tuxes would be too hot.”

Whizzer nodded again. “What about color scheme?”

Marvin shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Bright colors? Dark colors? Neutral colors? Fun colors? Boring colors? Primary colors? Secondary colors?”

Marvin chuckled, shaking his head. “I don’t know, Whizzer. Nothing too bright, but nothing too dark. Not boring - that’s _boring.”_

Whizzer laughed, leaning in and kissing Marvin’s cheek again. “We have plenty of time to think about it.”

“Yeah,” Marvin agreed, before pulling Whizzer in to kiss him on the lips. 

Whizzer definitely wanted to marry Marvin. He used to think that commitment was scary, and that he would prefer to just stay single and have friends with benefits for the rest of his life - high school Whizzer was dumb. Ever since he met Marvin, ever since their first drive together, Whizzer knew that he finally found the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He used to be afraid of long term relationships, of even just the _idea_ of marriage because of what he’s seen from his parents, but Marvin has proven to him that not all relationships have to be that bad. Not all relationships have to be bad at all. Sometimes you’ll score right, and end up with someone who could, quite possibly, be your soulmate. 

Yeah, he teased Marvin for being sappy and cheesy, but he was just as bad. 

“I love you,” Whizzer murmured into the kiss. He felt Marvin smile as he repeated the words back to him. 

And then Charlotte had pulled into a parking lot and called out that they were switching places.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay y’all, question.   
> so, i was thinking of adding in the price-brown au (where kevin price from bom and whizzer are twins lmao) to this one, i have a great twist & stuff planned if i were to decide to do this. what do you guys think? should i do it? should i not? i’ll do whatever you guys think! the story will work either way :0


	8. what the fuck?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i titled it this bc of how many times that phrase was used. 
> 
> also, i did it :)

The girls were in the back of the RV, sleeping, while Marvin drove with Whizzer in the passenger seat. They decided that would be a better way to do things, so that they could be driving more rather than constantly stopping. Whenever Charlotte and Cordelia would wake up, then they would switch places and Marvin and Whizzer would get time to rest. 

They sat in comfortable silence in the front of the RV, and they had for awhile now. They were trying to stay quieter anyway, to keep from waking Charlotte and Cordelia. About two hours into their switch, though, Whizzer spoke up. 

“Are you ever going to tell me about that building you were in when I woke up?”

Marvin almost had a heart attack. “Uh- No. I’m not. Never.”

“Why do you always get so weird when I bring it up?” Whizzer questioned, with a frown. 

“I’m not weird,” Marvin lied. “It’s just a surprise. Okay? You’ll find out eventually. Later. Much later.”

Whizzer sighed. “Will I even _remember_ it that much later?”

“You will. It won’t be _that_ much- Just… more than you would want.”

“Well, yeah, because I want to know _now.”_

It got quiet again. Neither of them talked until Charlotte and Cordelia woke up. Marvin was kind of scared that Whizzer was mad at him - what did he do? He couldn’t just tell Whizzer about the building, because it was where he got the engagement ring. He could tell Whizzer as soon as he proposed. Or - hey, maybe he could use that as an opening line when he proposed? That was, only if Whizzer wasn’t mad at him. 

They decided to stop for a meal after Cordelia and Charlotte woke up, and found themselves in a little diner. Cordelia told Charlotte and Marvin to go inside, that she and Whizzer would be in momentarily. 

Charlotte and Marvin ended up sitting at a booth, waiting for their respective girlfriend and boyfriend to come back inside. 

“What are they doing?” Charlotte questioned, after it had been almost five minutes. 

Marvin shrugged. “Who knows. Whatever it is, is taking quite a while.”

Both of them started to peek out the window, when they saw Whizzer round the corner. And pass pass right by their table. 

“Whizzer-“ Marvin started, but paused for a moment. 

Whizzer was in a completely different outfit - in fact, Whizzer didn’t even _own_ those clothes. And beside him was a guy, who Marvin has never seen before. Oh - And, no Cordelia. 

But still, both of them turned around at the sound of Marvin’s boyfriend’s name, and their gazes landed on Marvin and Charlotte. 

This guy sure _looked_ like Whizzer. A complete carbon copy. The _only_ difference that Marvin could see was the clothes. 

“You are…. not Whizzer.” Charlotte mumbled, but she sounded uncertain. Marvin felt the same way. 

The Whizzer look-alike slowly shook his head. “No, but… Is it… Whizzer _Brown?”_

Marvin found himself just speechless. What the fuck?

Charlotte took initiative. “Do you know him?”

“He’s, uh - wow, well, this is an extremely complicated story. Whizzer and I are twins. But we never really met.”

“What the fuck?” Marvin found himself wondering aloud. 

Since the _real_ Whizzer was still nowhere to be found, Charlotte invited this fake Whizzer (and his friend) to come explain the whole thing. 

Marvin kind of lost track. But what he gathered was that Whizzer and this guy - he introduced himself as Kevin Price, and the other guy he was with was apparently Connor - were separated shortly after birth. Something about only being a year old or so. Young enough that they wouldn’t remember each other. Anyway. Their dad took Whizzer and moved to New York, and their mom kept Kevin and moved to Utah. 

“Mom says that she really regrets letting him get away - but that he threatened her at gunpoint. Said that if she wouldn’t let him go, and take Whizzer with him, he’d shoot her.” Kevin said, twiddling his thumbs. “And that if she told the authorities, he’d kill both himself _and_ Whizzer before they could get to him. Obviously, she would rather him be alive and not get to see him than-“

“What the _fuck?”_

All eyes at the table turned. There stood Whizzer and Charlotte, both of them with a shocked, confused, scared look on their faces. 

 

***

 

To say that this was the last thing that Kevin had expected to start out his and Connor’s vacation was more of an understatement than he’d ever heard. He and Connor were just trying to take a fun little vacation to Orlando together, and now he was meeting his twin brother for the first time in over twenty years. 

“What the _fuck?”_

Kevin’s eyes landed on the mirror image of himself. Whizzer was freaking out - and Kevin didn’t blame him. If Kevin hadn’t been expecting to see Whizzer at all, he would have had the same reaction. 

“Do you see this?” Whizzer was saying, looking at the cute blonde girl stood beside him, and gesturing to Kevin. “What the hell? He’s-“

“I didn’t know you had a brother-“

“I _don’t!”_

“Actually…” Kevin mumbled, knowing that he had to interfere or else this wouldn’t get anywhere. And, Whizzer would probably pass out or something. Was he even breathing? 

And he explained the whole thing. How Betty and Albert Brown, their biological parents, had gotten married straight out of high school, and how they had kids - him and Whizzer - shortly after college. And how Albert threatened Betty, with a gun and willing to sacrifice multiple lives to get his own way, and how he had practically stolen Whizzer and left. And how Kevin was left with Betty, and how she constantly talked about wishing that she had done something to be able to keep Whizzer. 

Whizzer didn’t seem to believe it for awhile. Kevin didn’t necessarily know how to make him believe it. But then-

“Okay,” Whizzer finally said. “Alright. What would I know? My dad didn’t tell me anything. You’re- You’re probably right.”

Kevin just nodded slowly. “Right. Yeah. Okay. My- _Our_ mom will be ecstatic to meet you-“

“No.”

“What?”

Whizzer shook his head. “I’m not going to meet her-“

The guy sitting at the table - he’d only introduced himself as Whizzer’s boyfriend - suddenly spoke up again. “Whiz, it might be a good idea.”

“Marvin, are you _crazy?”_

His boyfriend, Marvin, shook his head. “Whizzer. She’s your _real_ mom. She can’t be as bad as the woman you lived with.”

“She isn’t bad,” Connor spoke, to Kevin’s surprise. Well, he shouldn’t be surprised. Connor was the mission president for a little over two years, he was good at taking control of situations and calming people down. Kevin should have just let Connor explain everything, honestly. “Betty Price is probably one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. And she misses you like crazy. You may not remember her at all, but she certainly remembers every second of the year she got to keep you. I’m not saying that you _have_ to meet her, but…”

Whizzer was silent. 

Marvin spoke again, looking to Kevin and Connor. “Where are you guys going? This diner is more of a tourist spot than anything.”

“Orlando.” Kevin answered quickly, trying to contain the excitement in his voice. 

Somehow, this decision mostly decided between Marvin and Connor, they decided to merge their vacations. Apparently Whizzer and Marvin and their friends were going to Arizona - which was less than a day away. Connor and Kevin would be joining them for that, and then their group would follow them to Orlando. Then, when they all got back, Whizzer would come back to the Price household and meet Betty. 

“It’ll be good for you,” Connor said, as Kevin pouted, as they worked to move their bags from their rental car to Marvin’s RV (the thing was big enough to hold about six people comfortably, and there were exactly six of them). “He’s your brother, Kev. You and Betty - and even _Jack -_ have been talking about him for _years._ You finally get to meet him! And you’ll get to know him, and then you can bring him back to meet Betty.”

Kevin nodded, kissing Connor’s cheek. “Yeah. Guess so. But it also means that Orlando has to hold off for a day or two.”

“It’s not like we were going to get to Orlando in one day anyway. A few more won’t matter, especially when we’re making new friends. Now stop pouting, grumpy pants.” 

Yeah. This was absolutely not what Kevin had expected to get out of his and Connor’s vacation to Orlando. But, somehow, he wasn’t too upset about it.


	9. bonding.

Marvin had moved off to the back of the RV, to do something for work. Charlotte and Cordelia were driving again, and Connor was sat up near the front, talking with them. He seemed to get along with them almost instantly. Kevin should have known - Connor could befriend anyone in an instant, if he wanted to. 

And considering that he told Kevin that he wasn’t going to talk to him until he finally at least put an effort in befriending and getting to know his brother, Connor definitely wanted to befriend the girls. 

“So, uh.” Kevin said, as he and Whizzer sat across from each other at the small table in the RV. “What… are your parents like?”

Whizzer’s eyebrows rose, and then he laughed. “Shit, actually. They’re in jail.”

“What?”

He watched as Whizzer shrugged, thinking for a moment, before answering rather bluntly once again. “Abusive. Mentally, physically, sexually.” Why did Whizzer not seem bothered by this at all? “What are yours like?”

Kevin couldn’t even think of a reply at first, let alone manage to get past his speechlessness from shock. “Did- Did they hit you?”

“Yeah,” Whizzer shrugged. “Among other things. But, hey, it’s over. I’m fine now. I’ll hold a grudge, obviously, and I will never talk to them again if or when they get out of jail, but I’m not afraid to talk about it. Enough about that. Your parents.”

“Right…” Kevin coughed. “Uh- Our mom is super nice. She’s kind of weird, but in a good way. And she likes to embarrass me. She always shows Connor my worst baby pictures. And my dad is basically a living dad joke. And also a bishop. And our younger brother is still in the middle of his emo phase, so he’s a living hell.”

“Your dad is a bishop?”

Kevin nodded. “Mom’s just really into marrying Mormon guys, I guess.”

“She isn’t Mormon?”

“Jewish. But she doesn’t celebrate Jewish holidays at all, so I don’t know.”

That made Whizzer grin. “My mom was Jewish. We did both Christmas and Hanukkah, but we didn’t really celebrate anything else at all. I mean, I went out with friends on Halloween, and did things for New Years with friends, but there were no their holiday celebrations at home.”

“Not even Easter?”

“Nope.”

“Birthdays?”

“Pretty sure they forgot when my birthday was.”

Kevin stared. 

Whizzer shrugged. “I just hung out with friends on my birthday. Delia and I would always try to bake a cake at her house and then just end up eating the batter and the icing.”

“Wow…”

“Mhm.” Whizzer changed the topic. “So, you a Mormon?”

“No.” Kevin hesitated. “Well, an ex-Mormon. The mission trip did… not go well.”

“Explain?” Whizzer looked oddly interesting. 

Kevin shrugged, and launched into an explanation. He told Whizzer all about Arnold, and about how he thought he was annoying at first and that now Arnold was his best friend in the world. He told him about how Connor had originally told everyone to turn their feelings off and that being gay was bad, and then how he turned out to be the gayest person out of all of the District 9 Elders. (That line had Whizzer laughing.) He also told him all about how Arnold lied to the Ugandans to get them to agree to be baptized, and how that got them in trouble with the mission presidents, and so on. Whizzer was cracking up by the end of it. 

“God, I wish I could have been there,” Whizzer said, while giggling. “If only it weren’t for our stupid dad.”

“Yeah,” Kevin agreed, with a grin. “If only it weren’t for him in general. Mom and I have been trying for years to find a way to get in touch with you - or, even, with him. He had changed his phone number or something. Maybe he just wasn’t answering our calls. I don’t know.”

“Either way sounds like him.” Whizzer rolled his eyes. “He’d never use his phone unless I wasn’t home when he wanted to yell at me. Then he’d get pissy with _me_ because I wouldn’t pick up my phone while in the middle of baseball practice.”

“What a dick.” Kevin said, without really thinking about it. 

It made Whizzer laugh, though, so he supposed it was a good reply. Whizzer changed the topic again - he was good at that. “You and Connor are dating, right?”

“Huh? How did-“

“Oh, come on. It's kind of obvious, Kevin.” 

“Is it?” Kevin looked back over to his boyfriend, who was laughing at something that Cordelia had said. 

Whizzer nodded, watching him. “Just that look on your face while you look at him. Says it all.”

 _“What_ look on my face?”

He waved his hand in front of Kevin’s face. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe just pure love and adoration?”

Kevin felt his face heat up. 

 

***

 

Connor fit in so _well._ Cordelia loved him already, and she could tell that Charlotte did, too. Both Charlotte and Connor were middle children, with a bunch of sisters. Charlotte has a few brothers as well, but Connor was the only boy. They were bonding over the struggles of having both older and younger siblings, and they had so many similar stories to tell. 

Cordelia herself only had one sibling, an older brother, and he was in college when she first got into high school. He came over for holidays and just to visit sometimes, but she didn’t have nearly as many stories as those two did. But that didn’t bother her. She loved listening. 

“My older sisters would always try to use me as their assistant when practicing to be a hairdresser at twelve years old,” Charlotte was saying. 

Cordelia snickered. 

“Oh, no,” Connor gasped. 

“Oh, yes,” Charlotte answered. She shook her head. “I had the longest hair. It was way past my waist. And then, since I was eight years old, it’s been this length.”

“At least it looks good on you!” Connor complimented, with a bright smile. “My sisters cut my hair too, only once. I had a bowl cut that took _forever_ to grow out to even be able to fix it.”

Cordelia burst out laughing. _“I_ gave _myself_ a bowl cut!”

Then, both Charlotte and Connor were laughing. 

“Delia, darling,” Charlotte said. “I love you, but I’ll have to break up with you if you ever do that again.”

“I could rock a bowl cut,” Cordelia said, jokingly. 

Charlotte shook her head, and Connor practically cringed. 

“Don’t get me wrong,” Connor said. “You’re a very pretty girl. And you have a wonderful personality. But, sweetheart, you _cannot_ get a bowl cut.”

 

***

 

Marvin had said that he was going to work on his job. And he had originally planned to do that. He had his laptop open, ready to work and everything. But he wasn’t doing that. 

From where he was sitting, he could see Whizzer and Kevin perfectly. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he didn’t need to. Marvin has gotten to the point where he was able to tell whether Whizzer was okay or not just by watching his expressions, or the way he held himself. Whether he was sitting up straight or slouching, whether he was fidgeting or not. He also rocked back and forth when he was nervous, sometimes, without even knowing it. He wasn’t doing any of those things. 

He was fine, Marvin realized, thankfully. He was having fun, even. Marvin watched as Whizzer listened to some long story that Kevin was telling, with a grin. Whizzer laughed a few times, and he seemed to be laughing really hard around the time that Kevin finished. Kevin was laughing at that point, too. It was sweet, even though Marvin had no clue what they were talking about. 

Even though neither of them had known that Whizzer had a brother, Marvin was glad that the two were able to finally meet each other again, and that they could get along so well. 

Marvin found his gaze straying to the lesbians and Connor, up at the very front. They all seemed to be getting along, too. They were all smiles, all of them laughing and playing around. 

He put away his laptop, deciding that he could just work later. It wasn’t too important right now, anyway. He glanced over at the hiding space, where he’d been keeping the ring. Marvin was still so nervous about that. Proposing. 

He was going to do it, though. He just didn’t have very much time left to try and calm himself down from the ideas of what all could go wrong. 

He slipped out of the back room, though - and was immediately waved over by Whizzer. 

He and Kevin had already gotten into a close-sibling-level argument, and Whizzer was asking for his opinion on which one of them was right. 

This trip just seemed to get even more interesting on a daily basis.


	10. talk.

They ended up stopping at an RV camp to rest, so that they could get up early the next morning to get to the Grand Canyon. They arrived in Arizona that night, so it was only a matter of a few hours before they would finally get there. There were just enough beds, and just enough room, for all three couples to have their own bed.

Whizzer found himself not able to sleep very well. He wasn’t sure why, he just couldn’t. He just laid there, with his face buried in between Marvin’s shoulder blades. Marvin was asleep, as far as Whizzer knew. He was quiet, at least, and he wasn’t fidgeting like he was before he went to sleep. Whizzer honestly wasn’t even tired. He kind of wanted to just get up and go outside, to go look up at the stars. But he was afraid to move, because he didn’t want to wake up his boyfriend.

Eventually, though, Whizzer sucked it up and slipped out of bed, unwrapping his arms from Marvin and pulling away. Marvin stayed asleep, thankfully, so Whizzer tiptoed out of the room and past the other sleeping couples, stepping outside and closing the door behind him.

To his surprise, Connor was sitting outside, too. He turned, as Whizzer closed the door. “Hi,” Connor greeted, with a smile.

He seemed much less energetic and upbeat than he had been earlier. Whizzer could have passed it off as him just being tired, but he knew that there was definitely something else behind him. Whizzer went and sat down on the patch of grass away from the RV, next to Connor. “Couldn’t sleep?”

Connor shrugged.

“Nightmare?”

Connor gave him a look of surprise, hesitating for a moment. “How did you know?”

Whizzer shrugged, looking over at him. “I would know. I used to have them frequently. I still do, sometimes, but not as often.”

“I… have them nightly.” Connor shrugged, looking down at the grass.

“About what?” Whizzer asked.

It was quiet. Connor clearly didn’t want to answer, so Whizzer just started talking again. “Mine were always about my parents. They’re horrible. Abusive. They’re in jail now.”

That seemed to help Connor open up a little bit. “Mine are… similar, I guess. I was sent to conversion therapy multiple times, from middle school to my junior year of high school. They isolated me from my sisters once I started high school, because they thought that I was spending too much time with girls.”

Whizzer frowned. “What was conversion therapy like?”

“I was shocked a lot. They’d show pictures, of couples. Whenever there was a straight couple, nothing happened. But when there was a gay couple, I’d get shocked. Hard. They were trying to get me to feel that kind of pain whenever I saw a gay couple - to _associate_ people who weren’t straight with that pain.” Connor mumbled. “I knew it wasn’t right, that what they did was illegal and that there was nothing wrong with being gay, but it affected me badly. I spent from junior year up until- until a little after I met Kevin, just trying to push it all away. Turn it off, I said. Like a lightswitch. Like I could just-” He made a switching motion with his finger. “And just like that, I’d be straight. I liked to pretend that it would cure all of my problems.”

“I know how that feels,” Whizzer nodded. “Just repressing everything. I thought it would make things better, but it just makes things worse. It’s better to talk to people, to just get it all out, rather than let it hang onto you forever. I was going to do that, until I met Marvin. He was the one who managed to get me to safety - to get my parents arrested, to get me to talk to people about what happened to me. I was always so scared to talk about it at first, because my dad always threatened to kill me if I told anyone. And I knew he would, too, if he ever were to find out. But, over time, after talking to Marvin, and to Marvin’s parents, and to the police, and to Cordelia and Charlotte - it really doesn’t bother me as much.”

Connor nodded. “I need to tell Kevin. He’s never met my parents. I always just told him that they were busy, and weren’t home. I mean, it wasn’t a complete lie. They’re always doing something with one of my sisters.”

“It’s hard at first,” Whizzer said. “But once you tell him, you’ll feel so much better.”

“I already feel better after talking to you, so… Thank you.”

Whizzer just grinned at him. “Want to walk over to that Starbucks? We can get pinkity drinkities.”

He could just imagine Marvin’s glare, like when they had gone to Starbucks a few days back. Instead, though, Connor laughed, “Heck yeah, sister.”

 

***

 

Marvin woke up to an empty bed. He wasn’t the only one, though. He got up, and was shortly followed by Kevin, whose boyfriend was also missing.

“Connor’s an early riser,” Kevin shrugged it off, not too worried. “He’s probably just outside, stretching.”

But Whizzer was, generally, not an early riser. Though, honestly, Marvin wasn’t all that worried, either. Whizzer was probably just outside with Connor. The two of them _seemed_ like the type of people who would get along fairly well. 

Kevin and Marvin stayed inside, and talked for a little while. Charlotte and Cordelia eventually woke up, and joined them too. While Whizzer was gone, Marvin decided to mention his proposal plan to them. He’d only told Charlotte so far. And, today was it. Today was the day he was going to do it. He was… so nervous. So many things could go wrong. 

“He’s going to love it,” Cordelia said, grabbing Marvin’s hands. She was almost as excited as Marvin was. “Marv, he’s going to be so happy! He’ll be so excited! He’ll be-”

“Who will be what?” Whizzer asked, as he entered the RV. As expected, Connor was behind him.

Marvin froze - and Kevin was quick to cover. “My dog. At home. He’ll be excited to meet everyone, when we come back after Orlando.”

Whizzer was immediately interested. “You have a dog?”

Marvin relaxed again. A nice save. A _very_ nice save.


	11. proposal, part one.

Marvin had been acting weird all day. Charlotte insisted on driving again, for some reason, and Cordelia sat up front with her. So, Whizzer was in the back with Marvin, Kevin, and Connor. He didn’t mind, though. He and Connor were talking about _Say Yes to the Dress._ Kevin looked annoyed - he obviously didn’t like the show - but Marvin just seemed… distracted. Whizzer tried asking him if he was okay, multiple times, but Marvin always said that he was fine and just brushed it off.

He was hiding something, Whizzer had managed to figure out that much. And he imagined that it had something to do with that building that he’d been in. Whizzer still hadn’t managed to figure out what it was and why Marvin was in there. He was still curious about it. What was it? Why did it matter that Whizzer didn’t know what it was? Marvin had said that Whizzer would figure it out later - but how much later? And how would he figure it out? It wasn’t something _bad,_ he assumed, because Marvin didn’t seem too worried about mentioning that Whizzer would eventually figure it out. 

After a few more hours of driving, they were finally there. Whizzer was so excited. He already had his camera out, and was snapping pictures out the window right and left. 

 

***

They were there. 

Oh, god, they were there. Marvin had the ring box hidden in his hoodie pocket, and he couldn’t keep his hands off of it. At least keeping his hands in his pockets was a neutral stance, sort of. It didn’t look too awkward - although he could tell that Whizzer was definitely suspicious of something. 

But that seemed to be the last thing on Whizzer’s mind, right now at least. He was focused completely on being the first one out of the RV and running off with his camera. The rest of the group followed along behind him. Marvin felt shaky. Charlotte and Cordelia kept looking at him, probably wondering when he was going to do it. 

He knew they were excited. And he was, too - he was especially excited to get this shaky nervousness out of the way so he wouldn’t mess anything up. 

He still couldn’t stop thinking about all the ways this could go wrong. He couldn’t figure out _how_ he wanted to do this, either. 

Marvin knew that he wanted to propose here, at the Grand Canyon. He knew that he wanted to do it in a way that would surprise Whizzer. But he still wasn’t exactly sure how to go about executing that. 

And then came the perfect opening. 

Whizzer held his camera out to Cordelia. “Take a picture of Marv and I!”

They were standing out in front of the canyon, to where it would be a beautiful background in the shot of the two of them standing together. 

“Do something cute!” Cordelia called. 

And that’s when Marvin did it. He dropped to one knee before Whizzer could even completely process Cordelia’s words and pulled out the box, opening it to reveal the ring. “Whizzer Brown,” he said, his voice surprisingly coming out strong and confident, “will you marry me?”

Whizzer stared, his eyes wide and his hands flying to cover his face. 

Was he crying? Was that good or bad? Marvin started to say something else, though he wasn’t sure _what_ when Whizzer suddenly dropped down to his knees as well and practically knocked Marvin over in a hug. 

_“Yes!”_

They had certainly gained attention from other tourists. People were clapping and cheering around them. Cordelia was snapping pictures. 

When Whizzer pulled away, Marvin saw that he was, indeed, crying. But he was smiling, bigger and brighter than Marvin had ever seen. Marvin hadn’t even realized the tears in his own eyes, as he pulled Whizzer in for a kiss. 

Eventually they parted, and Marvin slipped the ring on Whizzer’s finger. 

“Was this it?” Whizzer asked, as he wiped his eyes. “Were you at a _jewelers_ while I was asleep in the RV?”

Marvin grinned and offered him a shrug. “Guilty.” 

“Oh my _god,”_ Whizzer said, snickering, as he leaned in for another kiss. 

 

***

Even though Kevin knew that Marvin was going to propose today, it still took him by surprise. It was so… perfectly executed. Like Marvin had done this before, or something (even though they all knew that he definitely had not).

Kevin glanced around them as he heard people cheering, and clapping. They’d attracted a crowd. He heard some snarky, nasty, rude comments too, but nobody else seemed to react to them, so he didn’t, either. He glanced at Connor.

Connor was awestruck. He looked so happy. Connor always loved happy endings, happy couples, love stories. Kevin wasn’t surprised. 

That’s why Kevin had been planning to propose to him at Disney World, when they got there. It was the perfect place - full of happy endings. Full of happiness, of joy. Kind of cliché, sure, but Connor certainly loved a good cliché happy ending. 

Now he was kind of doubting himself. Marvin just executed a perfect proposal, without even really thinking about it. Kevin, who had been planning his own proposal to go a specific way for multiple months now, felt like he was going to mess it up. Maybe he’ll hold off for awhile. After all, it would be weird to propose right after his own twin brother got engaged, right? Or would it? 

It was almost like Whizzer read his mind - was twin telepathy a real thing?

“Now Kevin and Connor need to get engaged!” Whizzer called. 

Kevin laughed awkwardly, but almost everyone else in the group seemed to agree. Even some of the people who had crowded around and cheered after Marvin’s proposal. 

Kevin just prayed to the god that he didn’t necessarily believe in that his own proposal could go at least half as well as Marvin’s did.


End file.
